I made an account just to reply to this thread. I stole your username.
From liaisonedu.com (one of the Common App’s partners:)
"Beginning in August 2020, [transfer] students will have the option to select one of seven Common App prompts to guide their writing for the personal statement.
Some programs may ask for a personal statement in the Documents or Questions sections. If a program asks for a personal statement in the Documents section as a document upload, you do not need to specify the prompt you have selected. If a program asks for a personal statement within the Questions section, you will select a prompt and enter your response as text."
Common App has said on their blog that institutions will be able to choose whether their applicants will have access to the prompts, but they didn’t elaborate further.
I’m anxious to see how this plays out, as well. The essay/personal statement options for transfers that I’ve seen so far have been abysmal. They are very geared toward current college achievements, why this college over that college, etc. and are completely uninterested in an applicant’s story or personality. This is frustrating to me for a few reasons:
- Many (if not most) college transfers are students from community colleges. It is very difficult to manipulate a "Why are you transferring?" essay into becoming something interesting when, at the end of the day, the only answer for these students is "I cannot obtain a bachelor's degree from a community college."
- Community colleges are not known for their abundance of extracurricular opportunities. And even if they were, 80% of CC students work (and around ~40% of those students work full-time.) It's simply not feasible or even possible for most students to rack up a ton of hours volunteering, running a club, doing research, etc. assuming those activities are even offered by their school.
- A staggering number of first-gen/low-income/otherwise marginalized students start at CC's. These students have wonderful stories of overcoming adversity and pursuing nontraditional educational tracks, and they've had two years of higher ed to refine their communication skills. Do these stories not matter? Are the voices of high school seniors, who often had more opportunities, more important? More interesting?
I would wager that for the vast majority of transfer applicants, a transfer-specific essay is unnecessary. Give them the regular prompts and a “Why X School?” question. I know I’m ranting a bit, but I’m incredibly frustrated with this, and yours is the only relevant link I’ve found.
In my case, I was raised by heroin addicts and then a slew of foster families and other relatives. I did terribly in high school and I didn’t have a shot at any college worth attending. After barely graduating HS, I got my life together by working 40 hrs/wk and going to CC. Now I have a 4.0 and amazing stats, but no EC’s other than work, work, work. Realizing that literally no college cares to hear anything other than “What have you done in your undergrad thus far?” is completely demoralizing. I really, really, hope those prompts are available.
I hope we hear from others soon.